Between (29 page)

But I've refused to cry.

There's nothing else for me to do but hope the nurse-like guy comes back for me. I open a door and step inside the small room, sit on the black seat and cross my arms and legs defensively. Someone will come.

I'm not sure how long I sit
in silence with my eyes closed, again willing myself to wake up from the coma I’m sure is responsible for the nightmare. I trace over my life, from childhood to the day of the accident, and push away thoughts of Alek, Finn, and strange houses. They don't exist. I'm dreaming. I repeat the mantra over and over.

Metal against metal sounds as the door handle is pushed down. A mix of relief and trepidation over who will walk in accompanies my gaze to the opening door.

Alek hesitates outside.

I jump to my feet,
and rush to the door, terrified it might close again and he'll disappear. His dark-circled eyes are dull and skin pallid and he straightens his slumped stance when he sees me, mouth parting in surprise. Is he another figment of my nightmare or a horrible indication I’m not dreaming at all?

"
Alek?"

He doesn't speak,
just shakes his head numbly, and wrap my arms around his waist. He's real. The arms encircling me and crushing me to his chest are real. The heart beating beneath my cheek is the person who came here for me, who told me he loved me in his strange way. Only this time, I'm not overwhelmed with the energy which usually flows between us. I'm aware of the softness of his lips on my forehead and the comfort of his embrace.

"I thought I'd lost you," he says hoarsely into my hair.

I withdraw from his grip and trace my fingers across his face. "It's you? I don't... feel you."

Alek
strokes my cheek with the back of his warm hand. "We haven't got any energy, we're... I don't know, something else."

"Shades?"

"No. I’m not sure but I don’t know where this place is. I thought I was going to the Void but I found myself here."

“How did you get here?”

Alek takes my face, and rubs his thumbs along my cheeks as he holds me gently, eyes searching mine. "You're right, about the energy, though. I'm not overwhelmingly drawn to pinning you against the wall and..."

I tug my brows together.
"Not appropriate in our current situation, Alek. And I’m not stupid, I know you’re changing the subject.

"It's a good thing," he whispers.
“It proves you’re more than the physical addiction.”

“I think you coming here to find me proves that,” I say.

Something else surges inside, not relief but genuine affection for Alek. Whatever it took for him to come here, he did because of me. Not affection. More. I wind my hands around his neck, stroking the nape with my fingertips, and place my mouth gently on his. The situation around us is crazy and unreal, but we're here together, and this kiss is different. There's no searing lights, burst of energy, or desperate need to consume, just a gentle connection as if we're kissing for the first time. The awareness of how soft his fingertips are on my skin and the surge of butterflies as his mouth moves against mine is the opposite to the hungry desire we normally share. This kiss is with a man whose life I want to be part of, who’s prepared to give himself part of me he never wanted to.

Does
Alek feel this, too? He slides his lips from mine and nudges my cheek, sighing quietly. "I hope I'm doing the right thing."

"What do you mean?" I peel his arms from around me and rest against the wall, studying him for clues.
"Are we trapped? Will we be here forever now?"

"I'm getting us out," he says, but he's not happy.

"How?"

"Do you know who sent you here?" he asks.

"I presume Finn; I felt him take the energy."

He hesitates. "Yeah. And when we go back, he might do it again."

"Then why try? We can stay here?"

"Really, Rose?" he gestures around us. "Here? The Void? Hell?"

"Hell?"

"Finn got rid of you because you're his mistake and that's where we belong. But we're being given a chance to go back and keep fighting."

All I can hear in my mind is the word Hell. "So I am a demon?" I whisper.

"No. We're not demons! We're Between!"

"Are we? Isn't that just a species of demon? Don't we want exactly what they do?" I slide to the floor and wrap my arms around my head. Hell.

Alek
crouches in front of me. "We're not demons."

"We are! What are demons,
Alek? Things that want to escape an eternity in Hell - their only option, if they can't go wherever Reapers take them. Over - what is that? Heaven? Is that where Reapers come from?" I run my hands over my hair; I never believed in Heaven or Hell before. "Whatever, we want to escape an eternity trapped and can never be good enough to pass Over. So yes, Alek, we're demons."

Alek
stands. "I don't think your soul is as damaged as mine."

"Do you know something I don’t?" I ask him.

Footsteps echo along the hallway
; I can't tell which direction they're coming from. A short, balding man dressed in a brown suit scrutinises Alek.

"Are you
Alek?"

"Yeah."

"Perfect. My name is Eric. Come on.” He appraises me. “Are you bringing her?"

Something in the way
Alek refuses to meet my eyes, in the strange aura surrounding this man, sets me on high alert.
Man
. He's probably not even that. "Bringing me where?"

"Home," says
Alek.

"It's that simple?" I say doubtfully.

"For you," smiles Eric, showing yellowing teeth.

"And
Alek?" He's staring at the floor. "Alek?"

"We have to take someone with us," he mumbles.

The man claps his hands together. "Chop, chop! Come on!"

Something is very wrong here.
Alek comes for me then someone comes for both of us. I know Alek well enough to sense his wariness. "No." I turn away from them.

Alek
walks around and dips his head to look at me. "You have to come with me. Please. I'm doing this to help you."

"Doing what, exactly?"

"There's someone who needs a lift to the living, and I agreed to do it."

"Someone? Who?"
Alek shifts his look back to the tiled floor. “Who, Alek?”

"It doesn't matter.
All that matters is you get out of here."

I step back.
I don’t know what’s happening but I’m certain whatever it is, I don’t want to be involved. "Yes, it does! A demon?"

"Rose, it doesn't matter
; it won't affect us!" pleads Alek, glancing between me and Eric.

I shake my head. "No,
Alek. Leave me here."

"And get stuck in the Void?"

"I don't care!"

"You will!"

He attempts to take my arm and I shove him. "Finn made me, then took away the power he gave me, and that sent me here; is that right?" Alek nods. "So to go back to the world, a Dark needs to give me the power the same way Finn did last time, is that also right?"

"Yes," he says, voice barely audible.

"Then no! I won’t allow myself to become a demon."

Eric
chuckles. "Oh, dear, this is awkward."

"You won’t be!
You’ll still be Between!" protests Alek. “Please, Rose.”

"Created by Dark - Finn told me
the difference! They’ll own me, like they own you. No!"

"Tell her what'll happen," says
Alek, gesturing at me. "Tell her she'll go to Hell if I don’t bring her back!"

"No, she’ll stay in the Void," says
Eric.

"No
. Hell. Julian said if I didn’t come here, she’ll go to Hell." Alek's eyes open in realisation. "Fuck! You bastards! You weren’t going to?"

"No, she’s more useful to us here."

Alek launches himself at Eric, who sidesteps him with more skill than I'd expect. "Now, now, Alek. This was always inevitable. You just needed a little encouragement."

“No!”
Alek seizes the smaller man around the throat with both hands and slams him against the wall.

Eric’s
face transforms into something more sinister; eyes blackening until they appear to sink into deep holes in his face, a face morphing into anger. “Bad idea,” he chokes.

A split
-second later, Alek is flung across the corridor by an invisible force, head smacking on the wall between the doors opposite. Eric stands, hand outstretched in Alek’s direction, as if holding him there. I back up, heart thumping in my ears, waiting for the same treatment.

"She can choose
whether to go with you, Alek, or stay here in the Void. We can't send either of you to Hell right now, you idiot, not unless your souls are completely broken." He steps closer and Alek winces, putting his hand to his head. "We can break your soul if you don't do what you're told; we own part of you. We don't own her. Yet."

The horror of what I’m witnessing cements my decision.
How could he think I want involvement with these people?
"Don't you see, Alek? If they give me the power to go back, they'll own me, like they own you!"

Alek
falls to the floor as the man lets him go. "See, one of you gets it."

"The Void. I want to go there," I stand. "Tell me which door!"

I brace myself for Eric’s reaction to my movement, but he remains focused on Alek. Alek struggles to sit and pushes hair from his eyes. Fighting the trembling weakness in my limbs, I turn away and pull at the nearest door. I'm greeted with the usual empty room. I charge along the corridor, pulling open door after door as the man laughs.

"Rose! Don't!"
Alek's desperate voice follows, but he doesn’t. Maybe he can't, I don't know.

Stumbling along, I count doors again, as if that will make any difference. My lucky number. Twenty-two. I halt at the twenty-second door.

Stumbling footsteps behind urge my decision. I glance around and see Alek heading toward me. Yanking the handle on the left hand door, I step through.

The door clicks closed behind and I plunge into darkness and rain. The earthy smell of the world is mingled with another
, one that careers my thoughts back in time. Burnt rubber and oil. Headlights beam into my eyes as a car approaches, but the driver doesn't slow down, as if he can't see me. I stumble to one side, onto the verge, and sink into the long grass. Nearby, wooden crosses and flowers are arranged beneath a tree, tattered and dying. A memorial to Jamie.

I catch sight of something else, a figure nearby lying still. As I edge closer, I already know who it is. A girl with long
, blonde hair stained by blood is sprawled on the edge of the road, blood spreading into a dark puddle of water. Me.

Unable to hold on any longer, I vomit, the action and sour taste proving
this isn’t a coma. I'm here and alive. Or am I alive? The drizzling rain coats my hair and clothes, and I hug my arms around my knees struggling to catch up with this new nightmare. A tall figure crosses the road, his blonde hair illuminated as he steps beneath the streetlight.

Finn.

He approaches and sits next to me. "Hey, Rose."

"What's going on?" I ask him, incredulous at his behaving like we're here for a casual chat.

"This is the last place you were alive, which is why you're back here."

"How am I here and
...” I point to the figure, swallowing down bile. "Over there?"

"You're on the border of life and death again
; nobody else will be able to see you."

"Is this the real world?" I ask hoarsely "Or the Void?

"I can't get into the Void, Rose."

"Am I still dead?"

Finn stares ahead. "Not quite."

I groan and drag my fingers through my hair, pulling so the pain reminds me I'm not dreaming. "You sent me to that place… the edge of the Void, didn't you?"

"Accidentally, I panicked when the Dark at the party was trying to use you to create something wrong for the world. I'm sorry, I never meant to end your life." He pauses. "Even though that was my reason for being in your world."

"You did end me then
you sent me to that nightmarish place, so why are you still here?" I ask tersely.

Finn shifts to look at me, the rain glistening in his hair under the nearby streetlamp. The distance in his eyes is like I see in
Alek's sometimes, as if there's something about me neither of them trusts. Or they don't trust themselves around me.

"You succeeded
, though? You took back your energy, and I'm heading to the Void, as was always meant to happen."

He tips his head. "But you're not. You're back. If you had the choice, where would you go?"